Halloween Night

[terrorofgotham]

The Scarecrow doesn't have the Joker's knack for rallying a mob. He operates best by himself, anyway. He will gladly observe whatever chaos the Joker manages to stir up, but his real work for the evening is his alone

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[knight_so_dark]

The alibi he set into motion a few days before -- just in case -- ended up paying off when he woke, just after noon, to find that while he'd been sleeping Crane had broken the Joker out of Arkham.

The day becomes a rush of research and preparation. Stocking up on antidotes, getting in touch with Lucius and Gordon. Trying to gather information on what either Crane or the Joker might have planned.

There turns out to be distressingly little of it. The Joker put out some kind of call to arms, but he isn't able to discern what he intends to do with the manpower once it's collected. And almost as bad, he can find nothing on Crane

[terrorofgotham]

Scarecrow's plans are simple and single-minded. If he works alone, he can go where he pleases and flee the scene alone. He can improvise. However, he has larger quantities of the toxin than the Joker and his thugs. He leaves larger groups of terrified citizens in his wake, and that's a trail he makes no attempt to cover.
He's counting on being able to lose himself in those crowds, and in the dark streets and alleys. He has a long black coat, and his mask, and a wide-brimmed hat hiding his eyes. He also has the dispenser strapped to his back, and he is so fascinated by all this that he might not be as quick to get away as he should be, were he taking other factors into consideration as a higher priority.

[knight_so_dark]

It takes longer than he would have preferred, to finally comes across Crane's trail. A disproportionate number of people exhibiting symptoms of toxin exposure, and far less showing signs of common assault or robbery. Once he does find it, though, he follows it with dogged determination, only pausing once, to alert Gordon to the indiscrepancy, and to fit himself with a compact rebreather. It restricts his breathing, slows him down in a fight, which is why he hadn't opted for it with any of the other confrontations. But if he's getting close to a larger course of the gas, he'll need it.

[terrorofgotham]

He might know he's being pursued, after a time, or simply know it to be inevitable. This may or may not be why he is currently herding a small group of interesting subjects into a van, and getting ready to move elsewhere.

[misfittastic]

Clowns on Halloween. Serious, Gotham? Seriously? City, some nights it is very hard to love you. Misfit disapproves in the form of a fist.

There are criminals everywhere. They aren’t even trying to be stealthy. It seems like her City is two inches away from a full on riot. Must be Saturday. Criminal after thug after thug, each one crazier than the last, a dysfunction junction winding its way through the streets. She hardly has time to help clean up broken glass at an electronic store before she has to kick a Creep for being himself at Susan Reagan. And now Misfit has a really big black eye from where one Loser total nailed her, should have seen in coming, which is not okay. Misfit wants to give him the beat down he totally deserves, but then there’s a scream, she has no time.

This night is going to take forever, isn’t it?

Good thing she doesn’t have a curfew.

[knight_so_dark]

The night will end eventually. But then they'll have to face what they were able to do, and what they weren't, in the harsh light of the new day.

There's a scream. It isn't the first he's heard tonight, or the twentieth. Maybe not even the hundredth. But he reacts as though it is, clearing the gaps between rooftops with practiced ease and stunning speed, heading toward the source of the sound.

[misfittastic]

Three men. One gun. One civilian with a very nice jacket.

One Misfit. One tire iron. One element of surprise.

The thug with the gun doesn’t know what he’s doing. Total Skitzo. He screeches and she dodges, but he is already running away into the chaos again. She’s not going to follow him, the Civilian is still in trouble, and only crazies follow clowns. The other two are differently insane; they really do attack, so they get the tire iron. Really it's a very simple system.

Nobody can ever say Misfit doesn’t get into the spirit of things. She laughs at them.

[knight_so_dark]

The situation, as he finds it when he reaches the alleyway:

Three men. One well-dressed, frightened. Two in garish costumes that are worse for wear. One young girl in a home-made costume with a vague 'bat' theme, laughing as she beats the latter two men with a tire iron.

There are two possible explanations that immediately present themselves. Whichever is the reality, they both call for the same response. He whips a set of bolas at Misfit from the rooftop, and leaps down, cape billowing around him and blotting out the light as he lands at the alley entrance.

[cmmrjamesgordon]

Jim's day has been one long loosing argument; begging the Mayor to close as may public buildings as possible, contacting other police commissioners throughout the county (then the state) trying to get more trained riot police. The Mayor says that they can't show these mad men fear. The other Commissioners aren't going to send any of their men into Gotham unless they get orders from the Governor.

The only good thing Jim has going for him is the Batman. Sending groups of officers to specific locations the Dark Knight has spotted, men with riot gear and antidotes, ready to take down the Jokers men and help as many civilians as possible.

Tonight is going to be difficult. But at least they are partially prepared against this chaos.

[knight_so_dark]

At some point in the night, Jim gets a call. It's not the first call he's gotten today. Far from it.

When he picks up, there's no waiting for a greeting, but an immediate "Three more at Wax and Admiral, Downtown. Two males, late twenties. And one female. Mid teens."

[cmmrjamesgordon]

"Shit! Wait!" Don't hang up, don't hang up... "The antidote. Some officers are reporting it not calming people down." And some have just stopped reporting. "Have you noticed anything like that?"

Or is it just Jim's crap luck?

[knight_so_dark]

Don't curse, Jim.

This is just the news he didn't need. Hell. "Haven't stayed around long enough to make sure." He's been busy. But that doesn't excuse the oversight, does it? How many people have been left in the grip of their demons, just left alone, because he didn't think to test the antidote? "He might have reformulated."

[paintfromlife]

Pickman's been given a job, tonight. Document, record. He's been given a job, and good little minion that he is, as much as he'd like to hole up and wait this out instead, he's going to do it. Digital camcorder. Mp3 recorder, hidden in his jacket. A handful of memory cards. Gun. His own supply of fear gas.

He goes out, listening for where trouble is and heading for it. Recording the property destruction and the screams of gassed civilians.

It's nearly an hour before he's gassed by a suspicious goon, who's cottoned on to his group being followed. But he's dealt with enough of that before to be able to work through it now, ignore the hallucinations and his heart pounding in his chest, in favour of the more important mission. He stays down until the idiot and his cadre are gone, and then heads out, shakily, in the opposite direction. Trying to find another source of material.

He wouldn't want to disappoint Dr. Crane, after all.

[misfittastic]

Hey! Misfit sees you familiar looking Citizen! She wouldn't have recognized him if he wasn't in such a hurry. Dude still doesn't move right.

"Citizen!" she shouts. She would wave, but that isn't happening. "Are you alright?"

When he sees her he might be a tad confused. A vigilante with only one shoe trying to undo a zip tie with the sharp end of a broken beer bottle can have that impression on a person. And the clowns. The clowns are not going to help.

[paintfromlife]

"Shit!" he yelps. Entirely too startled by her appearance, and if she gets close enough, she can see that hsi eyes are dilated to hell and back. But still turning his camcorder her way. "Fine! Fine!"

Zoooom.

"I... ah -- h-how 'bout you?"

[misfittastic]

Misfit chooses to believe that's adrenaline making him cuckoo for coco puffs. Like she hasn't seen an addict a thousand times before. Oh, citizen. She thought you were good. Her opinion hasn't changed yet, but-

"Oh, you know how it is," Misfit continues to work at her ties. Almost... "Save the day, beat some thugs, accidentally cuff yourself."

Free! There is jumping for joy, kicking of clowns, and mugging at camera.

[35_minutes_ago]

Adrian is down on the ground floor of his building, now, helping employees in gas masks manage this mess as best as they can. All they can do, really, is create quiet, calm places, and try to keep the people inside them quiet and calm. If the toxin makes anyone violent, they need to be separated right away, and that, and general panic, are not easy to deal with, not by a long shot. The clown's thugs intentionally causing more panic are a whole other matter, and Adrian intends to keep them out.

[redshirtatwork]

They were told to cause chaos. They like to cause chaos.

A group of them see people moving around inside the big glass doors on the front of Veidt's offices. Quiet little hidden people.

That are not going to pleased when they start slamming into the glass, screaming and yelling and trying to break through.

Give'm all a scare. Send them screaming into the streets. That's what the boss wants.

[knight_so_dark]

Sadly, there are those who are doing their best... their increasingly more ragged, strained best... to keep 'the boss' from getting what he wants. Parts of town like those Veidt's offices are located in are less of a concern than poorer areas, for the most part -- they're bound to get more, and better, police protection -- but Veidt has opened his doors to victims and asylum-seekers, and when he caught wind of a group headed this way, he was determined to keep them from doing any damage.

They're making a scene against the window when he dfinds them, making noise and trying to break into the interior. Scare tactics. He can match them with his own. Off of the bat-pod and up to the nearest moderately high building, and not even a pause to breathe before he's leaping down again. He catches one, two, nearly three of them with a flying kick as he glides down from his observation point, and tumbling off of them, landing on his feet, turns to face the rest.

[35_minutes_ago]

They are not going to come in here. Adrian heads for the windows without any fear. He's calm, and only showing a little anger in his expression, enough to properly show these violent fools that he is not impressed.

He's about to go outside, and then, there's the vigilante chasing them. There are a lot of them out there, though, and seeing as how these people may well decide in is the best way to go to get away, he only pauses a moment before pulling open the door and stepping outside.